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Beyond Meta‐Analysis: A Plea for a Family Systems View of Attachment
Author(s) -
Cowan Philip A.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1997.tb04222.x
Subject(s) - plea , psychology , meta analysis , attachment theory , strange situation , family systems , developmental psychology , social psychology , medicine , political science , law
De Wolff and van IJzendoorn's (1997) meta‐analysis of parental antecedents of infant attachment focuses almost entirely on maternal behavior. I argue here that although the meta‐analysis method makes an important contribution to summarizing research studies, it limits the conceptual understanding of attachment to simple causal models, and ignores family systems models that could illuminate our understanding of the development of secure and insecure attachment in children.